A few weeks ago, Obama began a war with Fox News. Anita Dunn, the White House Communications Director said in an interview with the New York Times that, “We’re going to treat them the way we would treat an opponent. As they are undertaking a war against Barack Obama and the White House, we don’t need to pretend that this is the way that legitimate news organizations behave.”

I find this ridiculous. I’ll admit that Fox News is a rather biased news network, and you may disagree, but my point here is not to legitimize or support Fox News. It is instead to call in to question the actions of the president and the rest of his office on this issue. I feel like he is completely undermining his goals for bipartisanship and openness to the media.

In an interview with Fox News anchor Chris Wallace, Obama said, “I don’t always get my most favorable coverage on Fox, but I think that’s part of how democracy is supposed to work. You know, we’re not supposed to all be in lock step here.” But he seems to have fallen out of step with this train of thought.

Obama and his administration are attacking Fox News at a level that makes them look childish and inexperienced with the press. Every administration has its squabbles with certain media, but none has elevated their battle to this level. It is common practice to prefer news organizations that support (or appear to support) your ideology; it is not common practice to call out an organization for not supporting your ideology.

The administration has gone so far as to attempt to prevent Fox News from being a part of the Press Pool; an organization made up of ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox News and NBC and is organized by the House Correspondents Association. This organization is not subject to oversight by the government, and this marks the first time in history that the administration has attempted ban an entire network. Fortunately, the other networks objected and threatened to stop their participation if Fox News was banned. The administration relented, but still restricted each network to a two-minute interview instead of the traditional five.

Especially for a president who said in his victory speech that he would “…listen to you, especially when we disagree,” his recent decisions seem to display openly to the nation that he cannot handle the “heat” that Truman so eloquently spoke of. A policy that singles out a news organization in an attempt to attack the way they relay news seems to be more in line with the politics of Venezuela than the United States.

Not only is this new war childish and undemocratic, it logically has the opposite effect than the administration intended. Fox News prides itself in being the antidote to an otherwise liberal media. Obama’s war justifies this mindset, and attracts conservatives to Fox News at an even greater rate than before.

It is one thing to openly disagree with the way a network crafts the news, it is quite another to take action against them. Lets not pretend that all news must be completely centered. It would be na’ve to believe that it is or even that it should be. And I think that those who fall on the left or the right would agree. Such a view would be offensive to people such as Arianna Huffington, John Stossel, or anyone with a blog who champions reporting the news with a view.

I would assume that members of the Obama Administration would have enough understanding of this to refrain from attacking a news organization that tends to be critical of them while at the same time declaring that other news organizations (and perhaps organizations that are more friendly to them) are more legitimate.

I can only credit this decision to either arrogance or appalling political judgment. It is not only “presidential” to take the pressure and keep smiling, but it is good manners. Obama needs to take a lesson from the presidential playbook: You do not attack media that attacks you. Plain and simple. This action only displays how attacked and threatened the administration feels. If he were confident in his views, he wouldn’t feel it necessary to shut out a news organization that tends to disagree with them.

So for the good of the administration and love of democratic principles, I hope that President Obama books his spot on the O’Reilly show very soon. His Nixon-esque media enemy list will not go down well with the American public, and will certainly be hard blow to his stated goal of bipartisanship.

Jessica Huseman is a sophomore journalism and political science double major. She can be reached for comment at [email protected].